should we say something to coach

[bmakj]

14u team is into sixties game wise for the year (and very successul, which helped up the # of games). In addition, couple of the girls played HS (rest still in MS with no MS ball), several others played for town select teams (kinda in between rec and travel).

team lost 3rd round elimination game this past weekend, very hot and humid day. last game had more than normal errors. couple of girls coming back from some minor injuries that sidelined them a couple of weeks.. Nationals in a week, most leaving Thusrday, and we have a one day scheduled after that.

I get why the aggressive schedule, counting on a few rainouts somewhere along the way (DDs first year 10u team, schedule 4 or 5 tournaments, played one due to rain). but I think part of the troublre the girls had Sunday was just fatigue, couple of other parents agree.

do you think we should say something, nothing to be done for this year, but maybe to get a little less aggressive schedule in the fall (when several girls will be playing fall HS sports, including DD, and starting HS) and next spring? in our area, you can usually find a tournament nearly every weekend looking for a team to round it out if possible, or someone for a friendly DH (heck, our org has two teams at each age group other than 10u and 18u, could find a 14u or 16u team to play nearly for certain).

 

[FP26]

I cannot speak for other organizations, but here is how I handled our tournament schedules.

Every fall we would have a team meeting / cook out. All players and families were asked to attend. Often the players would be playing or swimming, while the parents would sit down and take care of a little business. Among the things we would discuss was how many tournaments the group wanted to schedule for the fall and for the following spring/summer. We would also discuss how far we wanted to travel and any specific events we wanted to attend; States, Nationals, Exposure/Recruiting events, etc. At the end of the meeting, I would ask each parent to get me a list of the dates that they would not be available; family vacations, etc. We utilized this information to build our schedules. We tried our best to schedule based on player availability, knowing that we had a decent amount of potential pick up players, if we needed them.

I realize this type of format may not work for all teams, but it worked well for us over the years.

 

[HunterMO]

The magic number of games will be different from kid to kid. DD has played into the high-40's this year and started to burn out a bit. Part of it was injuries. She's been going 4 to 5 days a week of softball since March. It was time for a break. She's taking two weeks off to heal and refresh. Luckily it timed up with a family vacation we are taking. Then she has an opportunity to ease back in as tryouts start at the end of the month (we are leaving her current team and have a couple spots lined up for Fall/next year).

For DD.... it started fine but ended up being a bit much. She didn't get the breaks she needed. Injuries (tweaks, bruises, and soreness) here and there started to add up. Her at bats started to go from great to not great. Mentally she was tired. Lesson learned for both of us. Part of the issue was that her team wasn't very good. So the coaches asked A LOT of her. She delivered but it definitely took a toll.

I agree with @FP26 that coming to the coach as a group of parents to have a discussion is probably appropriate. When you have a good team it's easy to ramp up the schedule. But until it's on a calendar it's often missed how intensive it can be. This would be a case where listening to the players and reading between the lines can be good. At 14u....over use injuries and burn out are real things. Need to be cognizant of that.

 

[CMMom1740]

I cannot speak for other organizations, but here is how I handled our tournament schedules.

Every fall we would have a team meeting / cook out. All players and families were asked to attend. Often the players would be playing or swimming, while the parents would sit down and take care of a little business. Among the things we would discuss was how many tournaments the group wanted to schedule for the fall and for the following spring/summer. We would also discuss how far we wanted to travel and any specific events we wanted to attend; States, Nationals, Exposure/Recruiting events, etc. At the end of the meeting, I would ask each parent to get me a list of the dates that they would not be available; family vacations, etc. We utilized this information to build our schedules. We tried our best to schedule based on player availability, knowing that we had a decent amount of potential pick up players, if we needed them.

I realize this type of format may not work for all teams, but it worked well for us over the years.

I think this is great. Our most recent team was a bit of a mess because Coach switched things around or added things after the initial schedule was distributed. For example, he switched from the Sparkler to IDT without making any kind of announcement (affected where best to stay) and wanted to add PGF later (he got a late invitation to that). Although going to both CA and CO would have been pretty awesome, that kind of travel really needs to be budgeted for far in advance for most people and not just last-minute added. Money is a real issue for many families and while some can afford multiple plane trips and 6 or 7 days in a hotel (plus food, rental car, etc...), many can't. Having some sort of parent input about these issues can help shape the year in terms of both the schedule you attempt and things like fundraising.

 

[The Man In Blue]

If done appropriately, I think that is an absolutely necessary conversation to have.

As girls get older, the playing schedule is either going to need to ramp up OR back off, depending on the purpose of the team and what the girls are wanting. I would say the vast majority of teams should be ramping down. The girls are not only getting more options of things to do in their lives, but more responsibilities thrust upon them. They are becoming adults and fastpitch softball is not going to "be their life."

I won't even bash the coaches. Many have been used to a full summer schedule for 6+ years and don't realize the changes their players are experiencing. They see this as the way their summer works.

 

[bmakj]

yeah, I think the entire team is a little worn out.

hoping two travel days help them all refresh a little (I know its travel, but they really only have to passenge the entire time, and fight with siblings of course)

travel wise only nationals absolutely required hotels, etc. (one tourney was about 1:40 away, most stayed overnight, but not all, it was mainly to see some different teams, so of course we wound up playing only teams from our area

 

[CMMom1740]

yeah, I think the entire team is a little worn out.

hoping two travel days help them all refresh a little (I know its travel, but they really only have to passenge the entire time, and fight with siblings of course)

travel wise only nationals absolutely required hotels, etc. (one tourney was about 1:40 away, most stayed overnight, but not all, it was mainly to see some different teams, so of course we wound up playing only teams from our area

I can't count the number of times we've driven to places anywhere between 2-6 hours away to play teams that practice 10 miles away from us.

 

[bmakj]

yeah, we all joked we should have just played a 4 team round robin and saved a ton of money

 

[The Man In Blue]

I can't count the number of times we've driven to places anywhere between 2-6 hours away to play teams that practice 10 miles away from us.

This is something that bothered me as a parent and still bothers me as an umpire. I realize that once you are into brackets this is unavoidable, but a TD should be doing everything possible to ensure pool play is divided up as best as possible.

As an umpire, I hate travelling to a tournament and then seeing my local teams. Just me being grumpy.

 

[Strike2]

Totally agree that out of town trips need scheduling and parental buy-in well in advance, and the rest of the season planned around that. As for the number of games, it really depends. 60 over the course of the whole playing year isn't unusual. 60 over, say, the Spring is quite a few. If you're on your third 8-plus game tournament in as many weekends, it's time to cancel the next one and take a break.

That said, I've learned that over-scheduling is required because of the things that will inevitably get in the way of playing, especially with older age groups. Those who live in most of the country have to deal with rain in the spring and summer. Trying to pick and choose every weekend will result in playing far fewer games than you want.